Golf Vic Vol 60 No 1

feature

by Charles Happell

MARYSVILLE… The Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 devastated Victoria at the cost of 180 lives. One of the hardest hit communities was the beautiful township of Marysville, where 10 years of heartbreak, grieving and recovery is told through the microcosm of the local golf club. A special report by CHARLES HAPPELL.

The Marysville community gathered at the golf course to leave a message to supporters from around the nation. Photo courtesy: Marysville Community Golf & Bowls Club

which was due to start back the following week,” he recalls. “Matthew said, ‘yep, I’ve only got four years to go and I’ll be finished school and then I want to go to university’. He was such a terrific young fellow. So full of promise ….” After the round, a par event, Emblin bought the youngster a soft drink and they waited around as the final groups finished and the results came in and, lo and behold, no-one was able to better Matthew’s score of 5-up, so he became the club’s newest, and possibly youngest, monthly medal winner.

one of his playing partners that day was a promising club junior, 13-year-old Matthew Liesfield, whose family had moved to Marysville from nearby Buxton just a week earlier. Emblin remembers telling the boy: ‘C’mon, jump in the cart and ride with me; it’s too hot to be walking.’ As the morning wore on and the temperature rose, Emblin got to talking to Matthew about school and his plans for the future. “I remember asking if he’d enjoyed his holidays and whether he was looking forward to going back to school,

Bob Emblin played golf on the morning of the most devastating and deadly bushfires to ever hit Victoria – Saturday February 7, 2009, the day we have all come to know as Black Saturday. A life member at the Marysville Community Golf and Bowls Club, which would soon find itself at the epicentre of the inferno, Emblin wasn’t going to be put off by the searing heat and blustery north winds. He’d played in worse conditions than that before. And besides, it was monthly medal day. So, aged 74, he headed off to the first tee in his golf cart and discovered that

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